How To Handle Dry Ice

Dry ice can be very dangerous. Please handle with care.

NEVER TOUCH DRY ICE WITH YOUR BARE HANDS. Dry ice is -109.3°F. If you didn’t get that… dry ice is very very cold. To help give perspective, water freezes at a positive 32°F… when it is about 10°F I usually call in to work for a “sick day”. Dry ice is a lot colder than that. You can see how touching dry ice would be a bad idea. Touching dry ice with your bare hand will cause immediate frostbite. If you are going to move dry ice with your hands, make sure you wear thick insulated gloves (preferably leather). If you have blocks of dry ice to move, you most likely will want to use tongs.
To better protect yourself from dry ice burns, we recommend that you cover your body with clothing. This would include long sleeved shirt, pants, shoes, and safety goggles. This will protect you if a piece of dry ice happens to go flying.

Where To Use
Dry ice is raw carbon dioxide (CO2). As dry ice warms up, it does not melt. The dry ice actually turns directly from a solid in to a gas. This is called sublimation. What does this all mean, you ask? As the dry ice melts, it turns in to the gas form of carbon dioxide. Most people know that breathing too much carbon dioxide is a bad thing. This can cause your body to not get enough oxygen. This can be dangerous. Please use dry ice only in a well vented room.

Children
Keep dry ice out of reach from children. As dry ice can be dangerous, only adults should use it.

Do Not Ingest
If dry ice can give you immediate frostbite to your skin, just imagine what it can do to your insides. Some people say that it is okay to put in drinks. Although it will not taint the drink, I would recommend against putting dry ice in drinks. Ingesting dry ice can be very dangerous.

Do Not Use Airtight Containers
You never want to store dry ice in an airtight container. As the dry ice sublimates in to a gas, it expands in the container. If put under enough pressure airtight containers will explode or rupture. This can cause pieces/debris to be shot out, possibly injuring bystanders.

Dry Ice Network provides you with everything that you need to know about dry ice - from dry ice facts, to dry ice experiments that you can do with your kids, to how dry ice blasting is used to clean million dollar machinery, Dry Ice Network.com has you covered.